After each performance Mahler
used to sip two glasses of
Pilsner (no more no less)
with his chaps at Pri Roži Inn.

Thus began the conductor's prelude:
The Magic Flute with two glasses of beer.

At the time Ljubljana was still a patch
on the rusty sack of the Monarchy.
Država skrbi, frowned a hundred
years later the group Laibach.

Empire fell on empire
with background music striking the ear;
meanwhile all remained the same.
All of its worth was heard when the music came.

Translated by Zoltán Lengyel